Marco Trovatello

As Head of the Cross-Media Section of DLR's Corporate Communications Department, Marco Trovatello was responsible for Communication across all media distribution channels (Web and Multimedia, Blogs, Social Media, Printed and Tablet media), Evolution of Content Management Systems, Corporate Visual Identity, and DLR's digital media strategy until 30 April 2014. As of 1 May 2014, he serves as Cross-Media Coordinator and Strategy Advisor in the Corporate Communications Department of the European Space Agency ESA.

Last night, Thilo sent back pictures of Discovery's launch that he took himself, including some taken with a remote camera. The latter were taken with the help of a sound sensor that triggered the camera, located directly at the launch pad.read more

After nearly four months of postponement of the final mission for Space Shuttle Discovery, I am back on site to document it in photographs. On the day before the launch, the press site at Kennedy Space Center is already filling up again but it is much quieter now than it was before the original launch date in November 2010. There are significantly less NASA activities, such as the Tweet-up, and international guests on this occasion. Launches are so complex and elaborate that any technical or meteorological complications can cause plans to change at very short notice. This has been clearly demonstrated by the delay of STS 133. In the meantime, the countdown for Discovery is running mostly according to plan.
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NASA quotes "Launch week" and we're on it again. At this very moment, Thilo is on the airplane to Florida to flickr and phlog the launch of STS-133. Even if on this photo (taken in November 2010) it looks like I am travelling with him: I am not, but will blog from Cologne instead.
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As most of you certainly know by now, the launch of space shuttle Discovery has been postponed to no earlier than Tuesday, 30 November 2010. The launch window closes Sunday, 5 December. For our little PhotoBlog this means we’ll pause, most likely until the start of STS-134. Many thanks for reading us!
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Tonight (that means on the night of 3 November) the Space shuttle’s Rotating Service Structure has been rolled back and revealed Discovery in its entire beauty. The Flickr set shows the respecitve images plus some more, e.g. Thilo’s camera in a bird house, prepared for launch.

Space journalists need to have stamina - in particular when reporting on a shuttle launch. Often, scrub follows scrub follows scrub - which is just normal with regard to the complex matter of space flight. On these images, you see the journalists waiting for a news conference following a meeting of the Shuttle Mission Management Team (MMT) – but the news conference will of course only start after the hours-long meeting has finished.
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Thilo Kranz and myself have been on two different tours today and had the possibility to shoot some behind the scenes footage. Thilo has been on a press tour. It took him to Launch Pad 39B, which in the meantime is being dismantled and rebuild for the requirements of the Constellation programme. I visited the Orbiter Processing Facility OPF-1, Launch Pad 39A with Space shuttle Discovery on it and the 160 metre tall Vehicle Assemby Building.
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In my last blogpost I said 'Thilo Kranz and me will be will be 'blogging and flickering'. Hence I've just set up a dedicated Flickr set for our photos of the STS-133 launch. For the moment I've uploaded just a couple of placeholder images, borrowed from our colleagues at NASA.
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Space shuttle mission STS-133 is currently scheduled for launch on Monday, 1 November 2010. STS-133 is currently the penultimate mission of NASA's legendary Space shuttle programme. Via the 'ShuttleLaunchBlog' it is our goal to document these last Space shuttle launches by means of photographs and short captions: The end of an era in - hopefully - fascinating images - in our first photoblog.
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